Original artwork, not a still
Emma · 1815
A single woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable, old maid! the proper sport of boys and girls; but a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as anybody else.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The passage gives two unmarried women sharply different social verdicts according to their incomes. Poverty invites ridicule, while wealth permits respectability and pleasantness. Repeating the same condition of being single exposes how money changes the judgment supposedly attached to marital status.
Context reviewed
